drat fink

so thats what you do

turns out my neighbor isnt just the long haired guy i smirk at in the hallway, he directs theatre, in this case, childrens theatre, and in minnesota. last time i checked, minneapolis was not the last stop on the L. but look how its paid off -- thirty seconds of airtime on the news hour. and theres probably some residual benefits from working with kids and being a positive influence on society, but i cant think of any offhand.

hopelessly tivo-ted

another tivo success story today. was able to watch andy roddick fall apart on the clay at the french open and lose to a short freedom-hating frenchman. i believe it is because he dumped his anamatronic barbiedoll girlfriend mandy moore. all 10 american men have been eliminated in the first two rounds. interesting factoid. serves coming off the clay are 20% slower upon reaching the baseline than on grass.

also recorded fmr general zinni with tom clancy as escort on charlie rose. he rocked. should rumsfeld resign -- yes, wolfowitz --yes, feith -- yes. stopped short at cheney.

out of the way

"The political split in the US over outsourcing notwithstanding, till very recently the fund-raising and vote-seeking campaign for the Republican Party was done partly out of India. And this was handled by two call centres located in our own friendly neighbourhood in Noida and Gurgaon."

youve blogged a long way, baby

"Two years from now—give or take—Elizabeth Spiers, the founding editor of the gossip Web sites Gawker and The Kicker, will publish her first novel. Around the same time, Glenn Reynolds, who writes the political Web log Instapundit, will also have a book in stores. So, too, may writers from the blogs Hit & Run, The Black Table, Dong Resin, Zulkey, Low Culture, Lindsayism, Megnut, Maud Newton, MemeFirst, Old Hag, PressThink, I Keep a Diary, Buzz Machine, Engadget, and Eurotrash. Suddenly, books by bloggers will be a trend, a cultural phenomenon. You will probably read about it in the Sunday Times. And when that happens the person to thank—or blame—will be Kate Lee, who is currently a twenty-seven-year-old assistant at International Creative Management."

piece of cakewalk

laura rozens blog - war and piece

tag, youre it

"Shock and awe were what our military promised the Iraqis. And shock and the awful are what these photographs announce to the world that the Americans have delivered: a pattern of criminal behavior in open contempt of international humanitarian conventions. Soldiers now pose, thumbs up, before the atrocities they commit, and send off the pictures to their buddies. Secrets of private life that, formerly, you would have given nearly anything to conceal, you now clamor to be invited on a television show to reveal. What is illustrated by these photographs is as much the culture of shamelessness as the reigning admiration for unapologetic brutality."

free for all

"Helpful Farber-Invented Tip: there's an easy work-around for pulling up old Times articles if they're within the frame that the Link Generator has them. Go to the abstract of the article; copy the headline; drop it into Google (carefully putting it within quotation marks); pick up the original URL from Google, drop it into the Link Generator."

via digby

dupes!

so funny it hurts.

silence is golden (gotta be applebees!)

"The Brooklyn-based orchestral pop ensemble The Silent League originated as the solo identity of singer/pianist Justin Russo (Mercury Rev, Hopewell, Grand Mal) in the late nineties. While a keyboardist with Mercury Rev in support of the critically acclaimed albums "Deserter's Songs" and "All Is Dream," Russo was secretly stealing away every available moment to write and record his own fragile, epic, and highly personal statement: "The Orchestra, Sadly, Has Refused." The resulting debut record by The Silent League -- hailed as a "a masterful blend of sepia-toned chamber pop and sunny-sinister piano balladry" (Bang Magazine), "impressive" and "heavenly" by the Village Voice -- features performances from friends and allies Sam Fogarino (Interpol), Sean "Grasshopper" Mackowiack (Mercury Rev) and Bill Whitten (Grand Mal)."

mp3 breathe

serious shrinkage

i have really failed myself at strategic planning. thank god i am nowhere near the pentagon when decisions are being made. not that i could do any worse. do republican politicians have any shame?

speaking of shamelessness, i have purchased a new tv and have just had installed directv. my strategic failure was not getting three tvs hooked up for free instead of two. my neighbor is taking one line (thats legal right, like file sharing) but at the moment i have two lines hooked up. so while my new tv is hooked up in the front room, im currently watching tv2 in the back room. just this morning i put my computer monitor on the middle shelf of a metroshelving unit (which is an upgrade from the box (that jim claims is his) was on). i have the tv on the shelf above it as i type from the reasonable comfort of a late 80s cheap leather scandanavian recliner. had i been shameless like a republican, i would have ordered all three and not considered that it was at all odd to have three hookups for this size apartment. of course the guys installing it could care less and i forgot what whores americans are for tv. probably wasnt unusual at all. i asked him if he had directv. he said that he had three cable hookups that were all illegal. land of the free, home of the brave.

maybe some french kicks one more time